


The Sky Gamer

by ScribeProtra



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Gamer Style, M/M, Multi, Rung is a Mystery!, Time Travel, Video Game Mechanics, Worldbuilding, baby robots, horde of ocs, kid robots, massive amounts of fanon, self indulgent idfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-18
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 04:47:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2638604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribeProtra/pseuds/ScribeProtra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My Nano 2014 attempt.</p><p>When Skyfire dies he did not expect to wake up again. His world being turned into a video game was just added oddity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Cloud Gamer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473412) by [Kebara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kebara/pseuds/Kebara). 



> Tempest and Voltage were named by Pinkrobotgirl.  
> Whirligig and Snakeoil named by Squirrel  
> Sparklight named Corelight   
> Rodimiss named Gleam  
> Sari the Allspark High Priestess, truck pulling, and race car chasing fanons are from the TFA porn people.

Another day, another trip carrying Autobots to battle. Even his hatching days at Vos weren't this repetitive.

Or lonely. He got alone fine with Perceptor and Wheeljack and he might be friends with Sideswipe. Sideswipe's actions where confusing.

But everyone else viewed him with degrees of suspicion and hostility. Skyfire just couldn't connect with anyone. Not even the Aierelbots, Omega, or Cosmos.

But he'd arrived now. He scanned for Decepticons, saw no danger, and started down for a quiet landing. The blast that ripped though him was unexpected agony.

He felt himself falling the remaining distance and then nothing.

***

Skyfire came back online weightless and in space. He shuttered his optics and turned in a slow circle utterly confused. How had he gotten here?

None of the star clusters where familiar. He yelled in surprised and flew backwards when a giant golden projection flashed into being.

He stared warily at it.

**_ GAME OVER _ **

"Okay," he said slowly, straightening and lowering his fists, "And how did you get here?"

The only reply he got was the text changing to 'Achievements'. Skyfire frowned as a list started scrolling.

_ No Homegrown Friends: Made no friends as a hatchling in Vos -1000 point.  
Smarter Then Your Frame type: Succeeded in Entering the Iacon Science Academy.+10,00 points  _

"While I am proud of doing so, must you say it like that? It is rather insulting," Skyfire said

 _ Flying Treacherous Skies: Befriended Starscream +1000,000 points _  
_ Made No Waves: Neutral Reputation in Science Academy 0 points. _  
_ Made the Grade: Graduated in top ten percentile from Iacon Science Academy +1000 points. _  
_ Enduring Treacherous Skies: Become Conjunx Endura with Starscream +1000 points _  
_ Bits 'n' Link: Hatched Bitsream and Hotlink +2000 point _  
_ Egged Bits: Encouraged Bitstream +500 points _  
_ Egged Link: Encouraged Hotlink +500 points _  
_ Blinded by Science: Did not notice Hotlink's problems -100,000 points _

Skyfire's wings stiffened at that. "Wait, explain that. What troubled Hotlink?"

The scrolling words ignored him and kept going.

 _ With a Whimper: Starfire is stillborn -1000 points. _  
_ Where No Mecha Has Gone Before: Got a job exploring new worlds. +50,000 _  
_ Eldest Sense of Humor: Became the Angle of Dissolution +10,000 points. _

"How could that possibly be a positive?!"

_ No Clan of Mine: Refused Singer in the Dark job -1000 points _

"That doesn't even make SENSE! Why would that be negative?"

_Out Stubborn a Black Hole: Refuse to change theories after discovering new facts._   
_Frozen Spark: Survive 9 million years in ice + 100,000 points_   
_Purple Stripes: Joined the Decepticons -1000 point_   
_Red Squares: Joined the Autobots +500 points_

He crossed his arms and glared, "Now that is unfair. Why is the penalty bigger then the gain?"

 _ Starscream's Ex: Negative Reputation with the Autobots -1000 points _  
_ Till All Fall: Died with out dealing with the Fallen -1,000,000 points_  
_ Moral Event Horizon: Broke on pacifist morals -1,000,000 points _

Skyfire winced at that but made no reply. He didn't like it, but that was a fair assessment.

Even though the Fallen was just a myth. Honestly.

 _ Empty Nest: Did not look for Bitstream and Hotlink -1000 points _  
_ No Prodigal Son: Did not look for Jet Convoy -500 points_  
_ Homeless Bound: did not look for Vos -500 points _

He stared, spark whirling in shock. Did that mean they were still alive? He'd thought. No. He'd *assumed* they had died when Starscream never mentioned them. But he'd never actually looked for facts, too hurt and grieving from how much the universe had changed.

_ That Worthless Shuttle : Died with negative reputation -10 points.  
Total: -1839310 points. Perhaps you need the tutorial on? _

"An explanation for what is going on would be nice, yes," Skyfire said.

_ Found Avatars: Genesis Uno, Automatonic, Tyran, Primal, Aligned, Eldest, and Just for Fun: Rune Factory. Unlocked Genesis Uno: Standard, Automatonic: Standard, Tyran: Standard, Primal: Standard, Aligned: Standard, Eldest: Standard _

"Oh, I see. You where not actually offering me an explanation, you where just being politely insulting."

**_ Continue?  
New Game? _ **

Skyfire hummed in thought as he looked at the text. This was different then the previous part. More solid. Appeared to be touchable instead of only visual.

It also did not change, just hung there waiting.

Well, he hadn't played many games, before. But hopefully his hypotenuse would be correct.

He reached out and pressed Continue. It was a moment of solid light and then dissolved into different text.

 _ Loading, please wait. _  
_ No Save Data found. New Game starting. _  
_ Loading, please wait. _

_Sound- **Normal**_  
_Video- **Normal**_   
_Auto Save: **ON/off**_   
_Tutorial : **ON/off**_   
** _Confirm?_ **

Skyfire shrugged and pressed confirm. Tutorial appeared to be on and that was all he cared about.

He yelped and crouched down as sound and light roared around him, whirling about, forming shapes and breaking apart in shifting patterns. The uproar settled down eventually, light solidifying into thirteen people standing around him in a circle. New text hovered above his head. He waited a moment and when nothing else happened he looked up to read

_ Welcome to The Sky Gamer! Please choose an Avatar. _

Skyfire looked at the thirteen and reassessed. They where not people, but statues. One was himself. This had the text 'Genesis Uno' about its head. Another looked like him, but with a prominent chin and had 'Automatonic'. A third was him as a technimal with 'Primal', another just looked off with 'Tyran'. The him with very defined optic ridges had 'Aligned' and the him wearing a sunhat and drinking a fizzy high grade though a straw had 'Just For Fun'.

Finally a statue of his Da with the word 'Eldest'. He snorted as that pun. Really?

The remaining statues where gunmetal gray and protoform unclear. There where hints of wings and they where sized to himself, but no other details to be found.

He turned on his thrusters and spun slowly in all directions. The unknown star clusters where the same as before. No new data to be found there.

Skyfire hummed before shrugging and touching the Genesis Uno statue. He stepped back as the statues whooshed and slide into Genesis Uno before coming back out changed. They resumed their previous positions and Skyfire examined them.

Only four were full formed. They had the words Standard, War, Decepticon and Prime hovering over their helms. Three of them had giant chains crisscrossing them, with a huge lock over their chests.

Examining War made text appear to hover over the lock.

_Unlock by getting out of the ice in less then a vorn._

Well. That was helpful.

Decepticon and Prime were 'Find Bits'n'Link after ice' and 'Keep war from happening in the first place' respectfully.

Assuming the previous list of unlocked was correct. He still didn't want to go with the others. He wanted answers and they looked to just give even more questions. With a soft vent he went to Standard and prodded it.

He was unsurprised when text popped up.

_ Genesis Uno: Standard.  
Base line story. Trapped by Ice is required, but no other restrictions currently exist. _

"Does that mean they can be added later?" Skyfire asked before resuming to read.

_ This Skyfire is passive, peaceful, and science inclined. Getting aggressive warrior jobs will lower points. His home city is Vos. Automatic gains the Never Starve, Flight, and Space Travel skills. _

_ Choose to play as Genesis Uno: Standard?  
**YES/NO** _

"Oh! So that is why joining the Decepticon was a larger penalty," Skyfire realized. He nodded to himself as he pressed yes.

The statues dissolved into glowing sparkles and swarmed Skyfire, blocking out his range of vision. He yelped when he suddenly felt a gravity well drawing him down and tried to activate his thrusters.

That didn't work and he tried to go into alt-mode and that didn't work either.

So he panicked as he fell into light.

 

***

He was screaming when he landed on smooth metal ground.

He looked around, venting hard. This was... impossible. This was his home when he had been a hatchling in Vos. It had been destroyed in the war. Vos had been. Well, she might not have died in the war. Had he been teleported?

"Skyfire?" his Da asked as he entered looking worried, "Did you have a recharge flux, egg of mine?

Skyfire's optics widened as he looked *up* at his Da. Working hypothesis: Choosing an avatar made him relive his entire life starting as a hatchling.

"Uh-huh," he lied, nodding as he got up, "People where fighting and it was scary and bad."

He looked down, spark squirming with guilt. He just couldn't tell Da the truth but he hated to lie.

Hopefully he could find proof that he wasn't insane. But how to do that?

He didn't have any more time to think as Da gave him a hug, lifting him into the air. Skyfire sniffled as he clung to his Da. He'd grieved for Da a great deal.

Even though nothing made sense and quite possible was a horrible hallucination. He was glad he had gotten to see Da again.

***

After calming down and Da was assure Skyfire was okay now, Skyfire lingered in his room. He thought he was about eight vorns old right now. There were some science books and experiments, but he remembered his room being messy and full. Instead he had a organized desk.

As the only offspring of Vos's Air Guardian, Skyfire had a really great room. A nice nest all to himself, a desk, two boxes of toys and his very own wash rack.

Skyfire was currently as his desk, for one reason. It had a built in mirror. That was also why he was assuming about eight, as that was his appearance.

The text hovering about his head, however, was new. It was the untouchable form of text and read ' _Skyfire: LV 1_ '.

He got down from his chair and went to peek out of his door.

Da had text reading ' _Jet Convoy: Singer in the Dark LV:80_ '.

Now Skyfire had a firm hypothesis about what LV *meant*. He already figured out that it listed a person's name and any title they had. But he still needed proof that his idea that LV meant how strong a person was.

A second question was why did Da have the Singer title but not his Air Guardian title. This was making Skyfire ponder things he did not want to think about when it came to his Da.

He would have to later. But. Not right now.

There was a loud 'ping!' behind him, so he turned and shuttled his optics in surprise.

There was a hovering black question mark in from of his face. It was the touchable solid text.

Skyfire shrugged and tapped the mark.

There was another loud ping and more text appeared.

_ Quest Accepted: Observation; Look around town, you might learn something.  
Tutorial notice: Floating question marks are quest. Quests can earn you EXP, money, skills, change reputation, or gain items. _

_ Different colors are different types of quests. _

_ Gold is an available quest. Blue is repeatable. Green is a way-point in a quest chain. Grey is unavailable because of current Stats, Rep, or LV. A Red Quest is made by your actions that can only be taken at that moment. Black Quests can not be refused. _

"Thank you for your explanation," Skyfire whispered as he headed outside. Da waved good bye and gave a big smile as Skyfire left.

Skyfire smiled and felt warm.

***

Vos was known as the city of flight frames for a reason. Only at the lowest levels where there walkways. Everywhere else you had to be capable of flight. Plus the higher in the towers you lived the higher your rank. But the point was that the majority of places didn't have 'door' doors, they had landing balconies.

As Air Guardian, Da got to live in the upper-middle area of the secondary towers. Granted Da spent most of his time everywhere else in Vos repairing and fixing any problems. But still, fairly high up.

Skyfire hovered on his thrusters as looked around. There was their home, there was the nearest market with the five shops. Most of the adults where at home or working. Two hatchlings about his age where looking in one shop window.

The stars were blocked out by city light pollution. Ugh. One of the best parts of Earth was the stars at night.

He gently lowered himself onto the balcony to the market square, politely got out of the doorway, and slowly looked around.

The two kids had the text ' _Tempest LV 2'_ over the blue one and ' _Voltage LV 3'_ over the yellow one.

There was a celebratory 'ding-ring-ding' noise and more text popped up in front of his optics

_ Observation Quest completed! Gained the skill Scan. _

_ Tutorial notice: Scan can be used to gain information about anything and everything. The higher you level it, the more details you can get. To check your statues just use Scan on your reflection. _

Well. He was going to appear to be very vain then. Skyfire hmmed in thought and wondered what counted as a reflection as he edged towards the nearest window.

However the nearest window was also near the other two hatchlings. Skyfire glanced at them before focusing on the window. He could see stylized armor and frames with some modded weaponry though it before he managed to focus on his pale reflection.

The world turned gray at the edges as a whole menu of text, both touchable and not, covered his line of vision. Skyfire glanced to the side. Time appeared to have stopped as the other two where now frozen and still.

This was utterly fascinating.

The menu had a list of touchable text on the right sign. The left had a head shot of Skyfire and empty spaces for other people's pictures. The text read, in order: Items, Armor, Mods, Skills, an empty space, Profile, Reputation, a grayed out Team Switch, Options, Help, and finally a grayed out Save.

He *should* press Help first but he really wanted to see what Skills where. Skyfire shifted on his pedes for a moment before craving and pressing Skills.

The window changed to his picture, name, and what appeared to be a *title* above a box with a list. There was a great deal of space left in the box. Assuming that was where any other gained skills went.

Currently the list was:  
**_Gamer Mind LV:MAX_**  
**_Gamer Body LV: MAX_**  
**_Never Starve 1/3: 0/1000 TP_**  
**_Flight LV1: 2/100 TP_**  
**_Scan LV1: 1/10 TP_**

Skyfire considered this. The list looked touchable, so he pressed Scan. More text popped over the menu.

_ Scan: Allows the player to know details about anything and everything they look at. Higher levels allow more information. 9 more tech points needed to next level. Skill remains in all playthroughs. _

Fascinating. Now what was a tech point and how did he get more?

Skyfire examined the windows again. Ah, there was an 'x' button to get out of the scan text. Aaaand there was a u-turn symbol at the upper right. Good, he was back at the menu.

*Now* he would be using the Help option.

The Help button went to a very long list of tutorial. most of them were just grayed out '???'. Skyfire assumed that meant he had not found the right question for those answers. The rest, however, had some blinking arrows saying 'New' next to them.

Skyfire started at the top and started reading.

He discovered that Gamer Mind and Body was how this whole game thing worked. Body was how he got full health by sleeping, had the menus, had easy learned skills. Mind was why he was functional instead of having a mental breakdown; which was reasonable. He'd been assuming he was in shock, but this was a kinder explanation.

He learned the difference between tech point and experience point and how to gain both. What everything in his profile meant, statues effects, how his inventory subspace worked. After reading everything, he back out and went to his profile.

The profile turned his head shot into a fully body picture on the top left. Top right had his stats.

His stats here:  
_STR: 8_  
_DEX: 5_  
_VIT: 6_  
_MAG: 4_  
_INT: 8_  
_LUCK: 2_  
_CHA: 2_  
  
STR and INT stood for strength and intelligence. Strength determined physical challenges, hand-to-hand and close range fighting. Intelligence determined mental challenges and ability to learn and retain knowledge. Both being his highest was very reasonable.

VIT and DEX were vitality and dexterity. VIT dealt with stamina, physical defense, and damage threshold. DEX was grace, speed, and long range weaponry. He was fairly decent as soaking up damage, and while he was no jet, he wasn't that slow.

LUCK was incredibly obvious and dealt with luck based challenges and games of chance. CHA was charisma and dealt with reputation tests and the ability to lead and influence people. He wasn't very lucky or much of a leader, so those being low was reasonable.

MAG was the one that annoyed him. MAG stood for magic and dealt with. Well with *magic*. Magic challenges, magic powers, magic attack and defense. The fact the game was being so illogically mystical was annoying. The fact MAG wasn't his lowest stat was infuriating.

Skyfire glared at his MAG stat a moment more before backing out of his profile.

He checked his subspace inventory and other place, but they were empty. He's money was also very low.

Nothing else to go but get out of the menu. Color and time flowed back into the world and Skyfire glanced over and smiled a little at the other hatchlings. There were two gold Quest mark hovering over their heads.

Wait. Did he need to touch the mark or just talk to them to accept it?

He was going to appear very odd to people now.

"Hello," he said softly, "My name is Skyfire. What is yours?"

The two hatchlings glanced at each other before the yellow one said, "I'm Voltage and this is my Trine-brother Tempest.

"It is nice to meet you both," Skyfire said, smiling wide. Tempest smiled back, while Voltage glanced into the shop window with longing before focusing back at Skyfire.

Two boxes of text popped into being that were a little different then before.

The first was:  
_Befriend Voltage by getting her a wanted gift._  
_Reward: Positive Rep with Voltage, Voltage as team member, and 100 EXP._  
_Accept: **Yes/No**_

The second was:  
_Befriend Tempest by getting second or better in Hatchling Rookie Race._  
_Reward: Positive Rep with Tempest, Tempest as team member, and 100 EXP._  
_Accept: **Yes/No**_

This must be the difference between gold and black. He could choose not to do so. But doing so would get him friends. And also, discovering what a Race was. So Skyfire flicked out his servo to click yes to both.

*Oddly* neither of the two found Skyfire's movements to be, well, odd. The game already had proven to freeze time. Did it also make his interactions with the text appear as something normal? Or just unnoticeable?

Either way, it might help keep him from appearing insane.

"Hey, you ever gone to the Races? I love watching them myself," Tempest said bouncing a bit in excitement.

"No, but I'm heard of them," Skyfire said, "Been thinking of trying to fly myself later."

Tempest scoffed, "You're so big and slow though. No way you can even get third."

"You might be surprised," Skyfire said.

Voltage just grinned and shrugged before looking looking back though the window with a spark felt sigh.

Well that was alright. Depending on the price, Voltage's quest would be easier to do.

Skyfire walked into the shop.

***

Voltage's Quest was not easier to do. The various weapons, mods, and frames all helpfully gave Skyfire details when he Scanned them. He even managed to level up his Scan, which was why he knew the shop's name was Iceforge's Smithy and his Reputation here was Acquaintance: Neutral.

However, once Skyfire found a, really rather glamorously decorated, yellow-orange chest armor that gave its details as 'Voltage's Most Wanted Gift' he wanted to despair.

He had a grand total of 20 shanix in his purse.

The lightning pattern gift cost 50,000 shanix.

He was eight vorns old right now. He had no idea how to get that much money.

Skyfire sighed and left the shop and started wandering. He had an idea as to what the Racing referred to. He had very vague memories of his Da talking about flight racing as a hatchling. However, Skyfire had never been interested and thus; never gone or even looked for them.

...He'd been a rather lonely shut-in for the majority of his life.

The good point was that the races were both legal and highly popular. That would make them easy to find.

Case in point: The market place had four balcony entrances. Skyfire had entered from the West Gate, which as the smallest door could only hold three shuttles and maybe a flock of jets at the same time. East Gate, however, was the biggest and could easily handle half a clan of shuttles.

Which was good because that was where Skyfire found the Races. He flinched a little at the noise and the crowd, before taking a deep invent and plunging right in.

Thankfully no one wanted to talk with Skyfire. He wasn't sure what he would have done if that had happened. The constant low-level roar of chatter was uncomfortable enough as it was.

Skyfire managed to wiggle his way to the sign up.... thingy. He scanned the list of possible races.

He ignored the adult, younglings, new builds, and any that excluded shuttles and focused on shuttle allowed hatchlings. There were five. Rookie, Indeterminate, Twist, Timed, and Skilled.

Rookie's current top three fliers were: Slipstream, Contrail, and Nacelle.

Oh, wonderful! Making second place would get him 100 shanix. Third would get him 50 and first would get him 500. The other four gave increased monetary gains, with Skilled at the most with 2,000 at first place.

Right then. He definably was going to be racing a great deal.

He got in line to wait his turn to speak with the people working the boards.

"I would like to enter the Hatchling Rookie race, please." Skyfire said once he reached the front.

Aeroway (LV: 14) glanced down at him and grinned, "Well, you're new! You're gonna have to fill this out before I can give you your pager."

Aeroway handed Skyfire a data pad and then focused on the mecha behind Skyfire.

Skyfire shifted out of the way and focused on his data pad. At which point he got a tutorial message explaining how the Races went.

Everyone who signed up got a pager that alerted them when a Race was about to start. If you where very busy you could ping back and automatic get the last place. Different Races tested for different things. Rookie was a clear circle with whoever crossed the finish line first in first place. Intermediate had hoops and turns with whoever crossed the finished line quickest in first place. Twist focused less on speed then on agility. It had the most amount of hoops, twists, turns and other barriers with whoever hitting the least getting first place. Timed was a singles race. It kept records of your best time.

Skilled took all the others and combined it into something challenging. That one was going to be hard.. On the other side, it gave the most money for winning.

Skyfire huffed softly as he filled out the data pad. He was going to do *so much* flying. Well, once he actually got back to the Science Academy, perhaps he would impress Starscream? that would be nice.

The moments in the lab when Starscream would glance sidelong and smirk, impressed and proud Skyfire had figured something out first. Those had been nice. Like, really *really* nice.

He shook his helm and finished filling out the pad. A quick wait though the line again, and Skyfire had a brand new pager.

The pager pinged and a blue Quest mark hovered over it.  
  
_Cycle Repeatable Quest: Hatchling Rookie Race._  
_Reward: Variable shanix and EXP._  
_Accept: **YES/NO**_

Skyfire flicked the YES button and the pager showed him a mini-holomap pointing to the starting line. He shrugged and went off. He just needed second place, after all. Skyfire was an adult in a hatchling frame. This would be easy.

****

Skyfire reassigned his opinion after meeting the other fliers. This would not be an easy win.

His fellow racers where all jets, probably younger then himself. However they were also all a higher level.

Slipstream (LV:10), Nacelle (LV:6), Contrail (LV:9), and Hooligan (LV:8). They all looked confident and fast. Especially Slipstream.

Aeroway hovered in front of the starting line and yelled, "Alright, reminding you lot about the rules for the neeb. No sigma abilities, no attacking other racers, and don't go off the path. You lot ready?"

Skyfire transformed with the others and said, "Yes."

He thought quickly, looking ahead at the track. The rule was no going *off* the path. What about going higher? There wasn't any height limits like the other racetracks.

"Well then. Ready! Steeeeeady! GO!"

The other four zoomed straight ahead. Skyfire, however, went at an angle. He did not want to be blamed if his larger bulk hit the others, after all. He leveled off once he got a decent ascent.

The race was three laps around the glowing marked path. The other four where all having to slow down, sometime to a full hovering stop, because they where in each others way. Deliberately so, most of the time. Skyfire, however, had gotten on a clear airspace. He had also been dismissed as unimportant and thus no one was paying any attention to him.

And that was how he made first place on his first try.

Aeroway was grinning and trying not to laugh too loudly as Skyfire finished and shifted back to root mode.

Skyfire glanced at the bickering group still half way though their first lap and then asked, "Do I have to stay here till they finish or can I just go?"

Aeroway burst out laughing and waved his hand in dismissal, "Nah, it is fine. Just let me give you your reward first. Also, you're now allowed to fly Intermediate! But yeah, that is it."

Skyfire nodded politely and flew over to the landing balcony. Now he had to- oh hey Tempest was already here.

"I admit it won't be that easy ever again," Skyfire said as he landed next to Tempest, "They'll actually pay attention to me now."

Tempest's optics where sparkling as his grin got wider, "That was still amazing though. You just ignored Slipstream! Slipstream of all people!"

Skyfire hesitated at that. Was she that popular? He'd didn't recall hearing her name before. Perhaps just very popular at racing then.

"So Slipstream is very good?" he asked.

"Good? She's the best at everything! Well, alright, full-growns can out race her, but she has beaten younglings before!"

Skyfire gave an impressed whistle as they made their way though the crowd. A hatchling out flying a youngling was wow. Not a regular occurrence.

He also smiled as a message poped into being about his success in Befriending Tempest Quest.

They made their way out of the crowd. Skyfire wasn't really sure what else to talk about. The only friends he had previously made were fellow scientists. Someone who loved flight races was outside his experience.

"So do you just like to watch or do you like to race as well," he asked

Tempest sighed and shrugged, "I dunno. I might like racing but Slipstream and her lot. They're really good at destroying any competition, you know?"

"I was actually unaware of that. How worried should I be?"

Tempest looked surprised, "Not that kind of destroying! just, you know, on the flight track. Not off the-"

"YOU WORTHLESS SLAGGING SHUTTLE" a new voice screeched at them. For a spark aching second Skyfire thought Starscream was there, but no. It was just an enraged Slipstream and her friends storming towards them.

"Uh-ooooh," Tempest said, optics spiraling wide.

Glacier ice was forming on Slipstream's hands and Skyfire's brain module locked up. That could not be a mod as giving hatchlings weapon mods was illegal. So it had to be a sigma ability. Which mean it was impossible to turn off.

He couldn't. He *could not* deal with an ice attack.

Skyfire twisted around desperately looking for a way out. He grabbed Tempest's hand and yelled, "This way! Hurry!"

Skyfire ran into the nearest shop dragging Tempest along. She was a hatchling that lived in the middle heights, she couldn't be exempt from the law.

The owner raised her optic ridges at them. The text above her helm read ' _Hesive LV 76_ '.

Hesive got angry when Slipsteam followed them in, ice crackling and spreading rapidly.

"Slipstream! What do you think you are doing?" The old shopkeeper yelled, shuffling out from behind her counter.

Slipstream froz-stopped moving and glared at everyone. She pointed a ice covered finger at Skyfire and complained, "But he-"

"No excuses, Slipstream! You know you're not allowed to make ice in stores. Either calm down or get out. *Now*."

Slipstream trembled, utter rage on her faceplate before stiffly turning and stomping back outside.

Tempest collapsed against Skyfire and said swear words in relief. "We're not dead!" he added.

Skyfire patted Tempest before looking up at Hesive. She placed her hands on her hips and tapped her pedes as she glared down.

"And what did you do to enrage Slipstream so, hatchlings?" she asked.

"I beat her in a race," Skyfire said

Hesive leaned back in surprise, optics shuttering, before she threw her helm back and cackled with laughter. She kept chuckling as she patted both their helms and turned to shuffle back to her counter.

"Good job, bratling. Stay awhile then, till bitlet Slipstream stops hanging around the door. Mayhap you'll find something you'll want to get!"

"Thank you Honored Elder," Skyfire said politely bowing his helm.

She glared and huffed, "I'm not that old bratling!"

He leaned backwards, still holding Tempest's hand, and squinted at her.

"You are amazing at disguises then," Skyfire said

Tempest made a choking noise and looked amazed and horrified at the same time.

Hesive gave Skyfire a once over before snorting and turning towards her data pads and ignoring them.

"You are scary brave," Tempest whispered.

Skyfire shuttled his optics, "Ah, if you say so Tempest."

Skyfire coughed and gazed at the merchandise trying to find something else to talk about. He stopped and stared at 'Voltage's Lowest Wanted Gift'. Which cost 350 shanix. Of *course*. He should have realized sooner. If there was a *Most* Wanted then there was other Wanted Gifts!

Skyfire looked over the small forging table with interest. Voltage would only be able to make decorative things with it, but it was a beginner frame forge.

Tempest leaned against Skyfire's frame and said, "Ya know, my Trine-sib Voltage? She really want to make frames but we can't buy anything for her to practice with. I mean we just met and just became friends, but I think-"

"So if I buy this she will like it, correct?" Skyfire interrupted smiling. They were still holding hands which was a bit different. Skyfire really only have experience being friends with Starscream who only wanted to hold hands in private.

It was nice though.

"I don't mind," Skyfire continued, "It'll make a nice gift, correct?"

Tempest nodded, optics still spiraled wide," Yeah. It will."

Skyfire left go of Tempest's hand, "Will you check the door for Slipstream as I buy it?"

Tempest straightened and nodded, "Will do, Boss!"

Skyfire felt confused at the nickname. People where confusing. He ignored Tempest's baffling behavior and went up to the counter.

"I would like to buy the Beginner's Forge please," he said getting out his shanx from his sub-space.

Hesive gave him a considering look as they made the transaction. Skyfire was just interested as his Reputation here changed from Acquaintance: Neutral to Acquaintance: Friendly.

"You're going to be an interesting one to watch," Hesive rasped as Skyfire carried the forge over to Tempest

"As you say, Spec Ops Leader," Skyfire said. He added when Tempest looked confused, "Since she is so good at disguises."

Hesive started cackling again as they exited.

***

Tempest didn't know where Slipstream and her friends had left *to*. But they weren't anywhere near Hesive's Crafting Store, so Skyfire didn't care.

Voltage both loved her new forge and Skyfire gained his first level. He would have to check what that meant at home.

The three of them agreed to meet up again next cycle as Voltage wanted to get her forge home and Tempest wanted to help.

Skyfire was hoping both of them would agree to joining the races. Three against four would be much easier to do then one against four.

Da had left a note saying he had gone to repair some problem elsewhere, which was surprisingly disappointing. Skyfire hadn't realized he would want to tell Da about his new friends.

However, something interesting and new made Skyfire forget about that.

There was a glowing blue circle in his room that claimed to be a save spot. *Fascinating*

This game thing was looking to be a positive force in his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Even though the save circle glowed like biolights, it could not be one. Vos's biolights where red and silver. The circle was bright blue. And since the circle was connected to Vos, Vos was the only possible choice.

Skyfire shook his helm. He was getting distracted. He focused at the circle to activate his Scan. A tutorial message popped up explaining how to save. Skyfire read though it carefully and then flicked it closed to warily stare at the circle.

Everything else had been... well it had been odd, but nothing dangerous. Weird glowing circles that just appear in ones room, however, did not seem safe even with reassurance that they were. Especially when the reassurance was from a formless unknown person whom could reshape all of reality into a game.

The Gamer Mind skill was incredibly useful, but it didn't cover everything.

Skyfire huffed and stepped into the circle. Might as well get this over with. There was a ringing noise and he was asked if he wanted to save.

A quick tap of the yes button and Skyfire discovered how many save spots he had available.

Did anyone really need four hundred save spots? Or wait. Thirteen times thirteen was one hundred and sixty nine. Assuming someone wanted to use multiple saves for each, then four hundred was a good amount.

After saving on the first spot, Skyfire went over to his mirror and called up the menu screen. He remembered the information about levels up from the Help area. Once he gained enough experience, he had to go to his profile and put his newly gained points into his stats.

Skyfire had gained 5 points and he thought hard about what to put them in. He probably should get his lowest areas up higher, but on the other hand. He was planning on going to the racetracks next cycle, so he should put them into DEX. Third thing was wanting to put them in his INT and STR because tens looked better then eights. Also, he used his intelligence and strength the most.

After deep thought, Skyfire put one point each in STR and INT and the rest in DEX. He would use next level to get STR and INT to ten and then start working up LUCK or CHA.  
His stats where now:  
  
 _STR: 9_  
 _DEX: 8_  
 _VIT: 6_  
 _MAG: 4_  
 _INT: 9_  
 _LUCK: 2_  
 _CHA: 2_

He nodded and then clicked back to menu and considered the changes. Three of the six slots for head shots were now taken up. The blank space now read 'Achievements'. Achievements and Help both had a flashing arrow that read 'New' next to them.

Skyfire tapped Achievements first.  
  
 _Golden Go-Kart: Made first place in a Rookie race. +20 points_  
 _Wind Storm: Befriended Tempest. +100 points_  
 _Electric Storm: Befriended Voltage. +100 points_  
 _What Is It With You And Ice?: Gained a rival! (Slipstream version) +200 points_  
  
Skyfire stared at the last one for a moment before calming lifting both his hands in front of the screen and making increasingly rude hand gestures.

There was nothing else in Achievements, so Skyfire checked out Help and discovered three whole *sets* of questions were being answered. Six explanations for crafting, seven for racing, and four for teams. Alright, the racing was more physical competitions as it also explained gladiator fights, but Skyfire still considered it for racing only.

No way was he getting into death matches for shanix.

Crafting ended up being really useful. If he learned how he could make mods, armor, items, and other necessary objects. Not only that, but certain objects would raise his stats or skill levels! He needed to learn how to craft.

Actually, to be blunt, he needed to make a list and also a map. There was so much to learn and do.

Skyfire also learned that he could not choose where Tempest and Voltage put their stat points. Only people who became aware of the game could do that. He *could* change their armor and mods.

The Help list didn't explain how he could get anyone else aware of the game. He'll have to add 'finding out how' to the list.

Once he finished reading, Skyfire went back to the main menu and then double checked all the other menus. Better safe then sorry.

He'd gained a new skill. How did he do that with out noticing? Skyfire tapped his fingers against the desk and frowned. Did he have to check Help *again*? He was just there!

He gave a deep annoyed sigh and checked again.

New explanation. Of course.

Only skills gained in Quests gave a notice about being learned. Skills learned by regular actions just appear.

Skyfire grumbled as he went back to Skills to look at his new ability.

**_ Leadership LV 1: 1/1000 TP _ **

He tapped the new skill and read the description. Huh. He'd gained this because he'd lead Tempest around when Slipstream got angry. Interesting.

Also, this stated it would help Skyfire know how to lead people well. If this cycle was a preview of his life then he would desperately need to know that.

Skyfire backed out of Skills and *triple* checked all the menus. He would need to do a great deal of checking since he wouldn't get notices about new materiel.

Finally done, Skyfire exited out of the menu. A blue quest mark hovering over his data pads caught his optic.

He went over and tapped it.

_Decacycle Repeatable Quest: INT Study._   
_Study text books for at least two cycle in one decacycle for a chance for INT increase._   
_Reward: Variable increase of INT stat._   
** _Yes/No_ **

Skyfire stared before angry yelling as he tapped yes. A chance meant this was luck based and his LUCK stat was an incredibly low two. That meant he should have put all his points into LUCK. This was so- so- so- arg!

He sulked as he gather some pads and walked over to the window. He had a third left of this cycle to go. Might as well get tech points in Never Stave while he studied.

Skyfire opened his window and checked for a breeze. A nice steady one flowed though and he nodded, a satisfied smile on his face. Skyfire dimmed his optics and concentrated just right.

This was a bit like transforming from one mode to another but. Only a bit. He was focusing only on his wings, which felt a great deal like they were expanding and contracting. He knew they weren't, they just felt like they were.

What happened was that small panels all over his wings where flipping over. Once done, his wings where no longer white and red, but a glossy silverish color.

This was the sigma ability he had inherited form his Da. Their wings were living energy-to-energon convert machines. Except right now, Skyfire could only use wind.

He hummed as he settled in the window, wings slowly flapping to increase the breeze. Skyfire checked to make sure the Race pager was active and opened the first book. He could eat and study at the same time.

***

The wind was strong, steady, and a constant flow of air. He'd not only filled his fuel tank and both of his feeding tanks, but he had to pause his studying to get cubes for the over flow.

His sides were bulging even after he filled ten cubes. It was only a little bit of curve, so probably no one would notice.

Well, at least he had lots of energy to fly.

The question was: Should he give Tempest and Voltage some of the cubes? They both lived in the middle heights so they would not be starving. But no one turned down free energon.

However, Skyfire couldn't think up a reason for him to have so much surplus cubes. One extra, yes, ten extra, no.

He knew what would happen if their sigma ability became common knowledge. Kidnapping and torture to endlessly make more. It'd been his deepest fear and recharge flux his entire life until the ice replaced it.

Skyfire consider the save circle in thought. Even if trusting was too dangerous. Couldn't he just reload?

He nodded to himself as he went to save in the second slot. This was true. He could just restart from a save, if helping his friends went badly.

Decision made, Skyfire brought two cube with him as he headed off to the Races.

Da hadn't come back while he was studying. Understandable, but still disappointing. Skyfire couldn't tell him about the game, but he could tell him about new friends.

And he found he desperately wanted to tell Da anything and everything. It was so different then before.

He shook himself to drive away such lines of thought. Now was not the time. Now was the time for flying.

***

Tempest and Voltage where waiting for him at the West Gate. Both had their own pagers, which was nice. But Voltage also had a slim silver-white circlet.

She grinned and offered it to Skyfire, “As thanks for getting me the forging table. I made you this!”

Skyfire smiled back as he accepted the present, “Thank you muchly, Voltage. It is very sparkly.”

He gazed at it as he turned it over in his hands and said, “Let me just quick find a reflective window to put it on and then we'll head to the Races, okay?”

Skyfire paused as he remembered and pulled out the cubes and handed them over, “Also, I got you both this.”

As Tempest and Voltage exclaimed over their cubes, Skyfire hurried over to the closest window and opened the menu.

The circlet gave ten points to CHA and an extra level to Leadership skill. This was a wonderful gift.

Equipping new mods was an odd and different experience. One moment he was holding it in his hand, the other it was just one his helm and fully integrated. It was just... odd. Useful as he didn't have to wait several cycles for it to sync in his systems, but still. Very, very odd.

Skyfire exited out of the menu and turned to see Tempest and Voltage guzzling down their fuel. Alright. Apparently he over estimated how much they got to eat. That or they were gorging unwisely. He made a mental note to keep supplying them if they didn't purge as he walked back.

“It is so well made, Voltage,” he said, “You've got raw skill already.”

Voltage preened at the praise as she put her empty cube away, “Well I am rather amazing. Now lets got show off our flying!”

Tempest let out a loud whoop as Skyfire ducked his helm and laughed. The two jets grabbed each of Skyfire's hands and off they went.

***

Slipstream and her posse where already at the Races. Skyfire smiled back politely at their glares.

His Reputation statues had changed with the four. Slipstream's read 'Rival: Unknown', while the other three read 'Acquaintance: Unfriendly'.

Skyfire's racing pager lit up with three quests. He checked the two new ones first. One was a greyed out pale blue, the other the regular blue of repeatables. The gray stated it could not be taken until both Tempest and Voltage made at least third place in Rookie. The blue however stated:

_Decacycle Repeatable Quest: DEX growth._   
_Get third or better on one race each cycle for a decacycle for a chance of DEX increase._   
_Reward: Variable increase of DEX stat._   
** _Yes/No_ **

Now that was going to be a challenge. Skyfire casually clicked yes and then leaned down to whisper in his friends' audios.

“I think the four will only focus on me. I'll go as high as possible and distract them, you two just go ahead and get first and second. That way we can do Intermediate right away.”

Tempest and Voltage glanced at each other and then back to Skyfire before nodding.

The three of them ignored Slipstream's group as they got in line.

****

Since his friend where already signed up, the Race got started very quickly. Skyfire ended up hovering next to Slipstream in the line.

“You're going down, you slagheap,” Slipstream hissed, optics lit with anger.

Skyfire smiled back brightly and replied, “I could do that, yes.”

Aeroway hovered in front of everyone and yelled, “Alright hatchlings, reminder time. No sigma abilities, no attacking other fliers, and no going off the path. Understood?”

Skyfire raised his hand and asked when Aeroway acknowledged him, “Is there a depth or height restriction?”

Aeroway's face twitched in amusement, “Long as you remain in the Race scanners are fine. Meaning as long as you stay in Vos's airspace and don't land on the ground, you'll be fine. Any other question?”

Skyfire shook his helm in negative, “No, sir.”

“Anyone else?” Aeroway asked, looking up and down the line. There was a chorus of no and he grinned, clapping his hands together “Right then.”

They all transformed into their alts. Aeroway's smile got bigger, “Ready. Steeeeady. GO!”

Skyfire tilted up and accelerated at an angle. He felt proud as his guess proved right. Slipstream and her friend immediately followed. He kept one sensor trained on Tempest and Voltage whom where whooshing straight along the path. And the rest on the mob crowding him.

Slipstream kept pace at his wingtip, close enough to be nerve-wracking, but not quite close enough to touch. Nacelle got above Skyfire, while Hooligan took the wing opposite Slipstream. Contrail took position right in front of Skyfire's nosecone.

Skyfire had to fly much slower then his top speed, and with a great deal of focus. He assumed from their actions that who ever touched *first* would be the one whom got in trouble. Not the one who got in the way.

Tsk, they were getting terrible flying habits from doing this.

“This trick won't work twice you fragging taxi,” Slipstream spat out, “I'm Slipstream and I am better then you at this!”

Skyfire hummed in reply, keeping watch as Tempest and Voltage got half way though their second lap. His silence worked to enrage Slipstream who started insulting and ranting.

He listened with half a sensor, rest of his processor split between tracking Tempest and Voltage and keeping his forward ascent steady. He managed to get both high up and farther along then he expected by the time Tempest and Voltage past the finish line. two-thirds though his second lap, unlike the mob's previous first.

“Hey Slipstream, guess what,” Skyfire said. It was unwise, but he did not like having to quietly endure her insults.

Her silence was filled with her anger and Skyfire cheerfully continued, “You're right the same trick won't work twice. Good thing I'm doing something else. I make a good distraction, don't I? Race you for third!”

With that, Skyfire sharply angled his nose downward and slammed his acceleration to max. Slipstream let out a screech as he left her behind. He brushed that thought away. Between max speed with gravity helping, he needed to focus to remain in the track. Thank goodness the curve was *gentle*.

He zoomed past his finish line at top speed and stalled hard, transforming to dump heat and acceleration. Skyfire hovered and let his fans whirl as he calmed down. That had been a rush.

“Kiiiiid! Hey, hatchling get over here,” Aeroway yelled.

Skyfire looked up at him. He had managed to get below the normal stopping area. Huh. He had not noticed. He had to smile though as happiness filled him.

His new friends where waiting there with big smiled and cheers. He must have gotten third. Skyfire laughed as he flew up to them. This sol was wonderful.

****

His guess was wrong, he did not get third. Tempest and Voltage had tied for first, which meant Skyfire got second and Slipstream got third.

Personally Skyfire assumed it was because he'd gone down at an angle which Slipstream had panicked and gone linearly. Gravity had thus worked in his favor, while she had to fight it.

Simply *terrible* flying habits. Even for a hatchling.

Except this meant they couldn't do Intermediate afterward as Slipstream lost her temper and started forming ice, which meant a retreat. Skyfire had last seen her getting scolded by Aeroway.

Being with his new friends was better then new racetrack, through. They stopped by a treat stall and bought cheap energon candy to munch on.

Voltage then wanted to get crafting data pads to learn recipes from so they went to Corvus's store.

As Skyfire browsed the stacks, he decided on his current goal. He was getting an item crafting workbench to make a map. There was a big universe out there. Knowing where everything was would be a colossal help.

He thought of something and asked his friends, “Do you think Slipstream and her friends will be at the Races next cycle?”

Tempest shuttled his optics in confusion, “Don't think so. They'll be sleeping like us, right?”

“True,” Skyfire said nodding with a pleased smile. He would finally get to see what Intermediate was like. He would have to set his alarm to wake himself up, but that wasn't hard.

***

They parted soon afterward, with a promise to meet up at the market square in two cycles. Voltage was not wanting to go to the Races again, so they would be exploring Vos instead. Ah well. DEX gain wasn't *that* important to him

Plus, there could be really important Quests elsewhere he could find! Perhaps even one to raise his LUCK.

Da was finally home, and said cheerfully as Skyfire entered, “Didn't expect you to be outside, egg of mine. Have a nice sol?”

Skyfire beamed up at Da, “The best sol, Da. I made friends! And won a Race!”

Da's surprised and then proudly happily expressions made Skyfire's spark feel warm. No matter what else happened in this strange new game of life. Getting to see Da happy again was worth it.


	3. Chapter 3

Surprisingly humans had a more functional system of time units. Cybertronian units were better when it came to large time frames like millennium or eons. Human units were more precise when talking about small amounts like minutes or hours or days. A Cybertron 'day' was called a sol and consisted of three cycles. One cycle lasted about nine Earth hours. The next lowest time unit was a breem which was the same as 28 minutes and twenty four seconds. There was nothing between breem and cycle.

There were a great many units below breem, but that did not help when talking about one-third of a cycle.

The next unit above sol was a decacycle which consisted of ten sols. A steller consisted of thirty-four decacycles. Then vorn, then decivorn, and finally one hundred decivorns to make an age.

The three cycles of a sol where typically referred to as Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary cycles. They matched up with human mornings, afternoons, and nights.

Setting his alarm to get up at Tertiary cycle to fly was terrible. Just so horribly exhausting. He'd been in a sound recharge and now he was up and sneaking out to go fly.

Da was encouraging Skyfire to make friends and interact with people. Yet, he knew Da would not approve of Tertiary flights. Thus the whole stealth attempt.

Which worked! He got out of home and to the marketplace without Da jolting out of recharge.

There was a smaller crowd around the Race Track, but it was a shady and rougher appearing crowd then the previous cycles. He thought of a problem as he approached the sign up area. Did Rookie require at least two fliers? He knew Timed only needed one, but didn't the rest need more then one to be a- well- a race.

Seeing Nacelle at the sign up wasn't a big surprise. Nacelle dropping in sadness was odd, but not surprising. The Gold Quest mark above his helm *was* a surprise.

_Secretly Befriend Nacelle by letting him win in Hatchling Rookie Race._

_Reward: Negative Friendship Rep with Nacelle, Nacelle as a team member, and 300 EXP._

_Accept_ : _**Yes/No**_

What an interesting mystery. Plus, Nacelle looked so sad. Must because he never got first. Skyfire tapped Yes and thought about what he knew about reputations.

Primary level organized by type. Secondary gave a negative to positive scale. The scale rain from negative three to positive three, with a zero as the neutral spot. The names for everything got interesting at times.

Getting people in his team depended on getting specific Rep settings. Tempest and Voltage where both set to 'Friend: New' which was the neutral point on the Friend scale. Nacelle was currently ' Acquaintance: Unfriendly' which was the negative one point on the Acquaintance scale.

Team line ups got tricky because you couldn't mix certain Reps with others. Skyfire didn't really know what that meant, as the Help text had not given an example. He *assumed* this meant he could not have, for instance, Optimus Prime and Megatron in his team.

The question he now had was could he have such different teams at different times? Have Tempest and Voltage during Primary and Secondary cycles and Nacelle during the Tertiary cycle?

Time to experiment and find out.

Skyfire gave Nacelle a nod and polite smile but didn't try to talk as they went to the starting line.

Aeroway looked tired and grumpy when he hovered in front of them. He raised an optic ridge but only waved a hand, “You both know the rules. Get ready.”

They both transformed.

“Steeeeady. Go!”

Skyfire started at an easy pace but had to steadily slow down. Slipstream was a talented flier with the bad habits of anger and arrogance. Nacelle was different

Nacelle was, bluntly speaking, a terrible flier. Terrible control, kept jerking up and down on his speed, and what appeared to be his top speed was a travel speed for anyone else.

Nacelle also did not appear to have much endurance as on the third lap, Skyfire flat out had to stop and hover repetitively to let Nacelle keep the lead.

They crossed the finish line eventually. Aeroway was giving Skyfire an unreadable look as he gave them their prizes and then flew off. He assumed Aeroway was going back to recharge.

Skyfire gave Nacelle another polite nod and then flew off towards home. No reason to land on the market place, and the Races where slow enough to be avoidable.

“Hey, wait!” Nacelle called out, venting as he tried to catch up, “Why'd you let me win?”

Skyfire paused and thought about that. Experimenting was interesting but not enough to do incorrect actions. On the other hand, Nacelle mostly just hung out with aggressive hatchlings instead of being the leader.

He thought of how sad and hopeless Nacelle had looked before the Race and how, if the previous two where correct, he never go any place other then third or last.

He thought of how you needed two for a Race and how the decacycle DEX gain required third or better.

“Why not?” Skyfire replied, “It isn't like we're enemies.”

Nacelle looked shocked and said, “But. Slipstream-,”

“Is arrogant and a bit of a brat, but not my enemy,” Skyfire interrupted before adding, “I might accept her as a rival but, honestly, I'm only into Racing to get money. I only care about getting third place, not first.”

Nacelle made a blank uncomprehending face and just stared.

Skyfire waited politely before saying, “I am going back to recharge. Fair flying, Nacelle.”

Nacelle gave a mumbled reply and hovered there as Skyfire went home.

***

As Skyfire snuck into his home and towards his berth Vos whispered, “What a strange child you are.”

Skyfire stopped and glanced in worry towards Da's room. He relaxed once he realized Vos was only talking to himself.

“As long as no one is trying to shoot me or put me in prison or something, then I am utterly indifferent to their options,” he whispered back, “That includes you, Lady Vos.”

He waited, optics squinting from both tiredness and suspicion at a wall but Vos didn't say anything else. He shrugged and went to scan himself. He'd jumped up to level six from this Race and Quest. Wonderful!

That gave him twenty stat points to spend. His CHA was currently twelve because of Voltage's circlet so that was to be left alone.

He got his LUCK up to ten, and did the same with STR and INT.. Getting DEX and VIT up to ten as well left him with four points to spend.

Skyfire rubbed his face and sighed deeply. Leaving his MAG so low was unwise but he still really reeeeally didn't want magic to be around and annoying him with its magicalness. But. Denying reality was stupid.

He grumbled as he dumped his remaining points into his MAG skill. Sometimes this whole game thing was extremely irritating. Skyfire leaned back and glanced over his stats. They now looked like this:

_STR: 10_

_D_ _EX: 10_

_VIT: 10_

_MAG: 8_

_INT: 10_

_LUCK: 10_

_CHA: 2 (10)_  

Skyfire finalized his level-up, got out of the menu, and went back to recharge. This cycle had been busy.

***

He was a little drained when he woke up properly on Primary cycle, but it remained within acceptable perimeters. Also, he had eight cubes he could energize with.

Skyfire glanced over at the pile and reassessed. Vos apparently had wanted a tithe for her hunger yester-sol, as there were only five cubes left.

Hmmm. Two for now, two for his friends, and one in reserve. Good enough. He quickly drank his down and left to go met his friends.

***

He really needed to learn how to make a map. He could find places, but Skyfire liked knowing where everywhere was in comparison to everything else.

The market was not a circle, but neither was it a square. The tower it was in alternated between straight lines and curves for the boundary. The end result was a rather odd shape.

Now the highest first Tower was a perfect square, while the lesser, third Towers were circles and ovals.

He was letting his thoughts roam again. Well, he could do that now. No war, no exploring dangerous places, no worries at all. Outside of racing, Skyfire could let his processor wander where it willed.

Later, for he had arrived at the market center where Tempest and Voltage waited for him. They were both sitting on the edge of the market statue solvent fountain thing. Skyfire didn't know much about architecture and thus did not know what it was called.

He gave them both a smile as he handed over the cubes.

After guzzling down hers, Voltage said, “Right, we might need to change our plans.”

Skyfire made an inquiring noise as he sat down next to them.

Voltage grinned and continued, “So Slipstream's creator is Iceforge and since she is grounded for her temper at the Races, she is stuck at the best shop and we can't get in there cause she is being a leak. We could go exploring but there ain't much else to do around here.”

“Aeroway wants to talk to you this cycle,” Tempest added.

Skyfire shuttled his optics and thought before asking, “How long a talk did Aeroway want and how soon this cycle? Because we could go explore the first half and then check out what he wants.”

"I'm fine with talking to Aeroway first," Voltage said, "Get it over with. He don't go on with talking, after all."

"Ah? Well okay then. We all agree on Races first and then exploring?" Skyfire asked. After both gave affirmative answers, Skyfire stood up and stretched his wings, "Then we're off to the Races."

***

The line to talk to Aeroway had been thankfully short. He'd waved over some one else (Trafcon LV 17) to do his job and then hustled the three into a office. It wasn't too cramped and he'd given them free candy, so that was nice.

"Alright, so Skyfire. Are you and Slipstream wanting to be officially rivals? I know Slipstream has filed the data for it," Aeroway said as an opener. He also held up a datapad that Skyfire assumed held the request.

Skyfire just stared in confusion while Tempest squawked in surprise and Voltage made a blow back noise. He had not seen this coming.

"That is uh. I'm afraid I don't understand what it means. I comprehend that it is important, but that is all I really know," Skyfire replied.

Aeroway looked surprised at that. Skyfire didn't see why it was surprising. He had nothing to do with the Races until yester-sol, and there was only a one line reference to 'different contests have different rival systems' in the Help menu.

"Ah well," Aeroway spluttered before visibly calming himself and explaining, "Except for Timed and Skilled, you and your group will have separate Races. At the end of a decacycle your scores will be tallied and the winner will get an extra amount of shanix."

"What if someone is a member of both groups?" Skyfire asked. He would still like to fly Tertiary Races with Nacelle, so if he couldn't then he was defiantly turning this down.

"They can only do one or the other during that cycle, but sure," Aeroway said, "I'd advise against it though, as that would be more personal then professional."

Skyfire gave a polite 'I understand what you're saying but I'm doing this anyway' smile and agreeable noise. He was terrible at interpersonal interactions and knew it. It might blow up in his faceplate or it might end up being a good idea. Either way, he was doing it.

"Then, sure, I'm fine with being Rivals," Skyfire agreed.

***

He didn't know what the horrible backfiring downside to this was, but he knew it was coming. However, that was later. Right now, it just seemed like a new path to take and an interesting thing to do.

The datawork wasn't the longest he ever filled out, so they still had two thirds of the cycle left after the three of them finished Intermediate.

Tempest and Voltage had wanted to do so after Skyfire had finished filling the rival request out. It'd been interesting! Third place offered 100 shanix, second gave 350, and first gave 600.

Since the three of them had just flown and did not try to harass each other and, Skyfire had gone at a steady, but still easy speed, Tempest had gotten first, Voltage had gotten second, and Skyfire had gotten third. He now had a total of three hundred and fifty-five shanix.

Tempest and Voltage both jumped up to level six after finishing which was nice. Everyone being the same level felt good.

He had also thought of two things while walking away from the Races. He turned to his friends and said dryly, "You deliberately tied to increase my chances at making third or second. That was clever and kind of you both. So, thank you for your help."

Skyfire got treated to Tempest and Voltage's matching proud grins and had to smile back. Having friends was nice.

And today, they could go explore the city! Or at the least, the market as they were small and couldn't go far.

***

As they explored, it accrued to Skyfire that he should practice his Scan skill. Later levels in Scan might be even more helpful then it already was.

Tempest and Voltage had the vaguely disproportional look of hatchlings, but still were recognizable the same frame type as Starscream. Skyfire had been baffled with the Autobots as they kept using the command rank of seeker to describe an entire frame-type. Tempest, Voltage, Starscream, and Slipstream were all what Skyfire knew as the 'adaptive jet' frame-type. They were designed to be acceptable at both civilian tasks and war duties.

Tempest was a bit more streamlined and aerodynamic then Voltage, while Voltage was a bit more powerful and more decorative then Tempest. They both had red optics, though. Tempest was a darker shade then Voltage. Tempest was very very blue, while Voltage was very very yellow.

This was important as most people had a primary frame color; for instance, Skyfire's was white. They then use a different color for decoration, which was red in Skyfire's case. Tempest and Voltage did not do this. They used different shades of blue and yellow for everything. Even their vents, that most people left gray or black, were painted.

Starscream had been considered vain because he used three different colors on his frame.

Skyfire dismissed that from his processor and focused on learning the whole market. The market center, with its food and trinket stalls, was where the fountain and statue piece were, along with some decorative crystals in strategic spots. Wirligig's brightly painted toy store was also at the center. The four paths leading toward the four entrance balconies. Iceforge's mod shop was on the west path, Hesive's crafting store was on the east, Corvo's datapad store was on the south path, and finally Snakeoil's healing potions and miscellaneous was on the north path. The Air Races was at the East entrance, while the public transport to other cities was in the North. South had a bar they could not enter as they were underage, but West had a strange new something.

Its floating text read ' _Beginners Dungeon Recommended LV: 1 to 4_ '. Below that was a great many questions marks. Skyfire assumed his Scan wasn't high enough to see that information.

His own LV was higher then recommended but Tempest and Voltage were still two and three. So it would be good for them.

Anyway, he rather wanted to explore this Dungeon. He gave it a long hard look. The opening did not give much information. It was just a hole in the wall. It was big enough for Skyfire to fit, but that was about it. The edges where jagged. Which was odd! Service doors should be smooth and finished, not jagged and a bit chewed on.

Skyfire turned to his friends and asked, "This looks a bit dangerous. Want to explore it anyway?"

"Sure!" said Tempest, wings fluttering in excitement as he bounced on his heels.

"Could be fun," Voltage agreed, "Let's do it."

Skyfire went in first and something strange and confusing happened to gravity. They all floated down a long chewed on tunnel until they landed on a hollowed out space. It was big enough for a full grown shuttle, which was baffling, because why would it be?

And then the world went gray and time froze and Skyfire sighed deeply with barely hidden annoyance.

The only parts of the world that had color were himself, ten suddenly appearing in a swirl of sparkles chests, and the pop-up text.

_Tutorial notice: Before setting off to fight in a dungeon, you are advised to equip a weapon. If no weapon is equipped then fists are used as default. Choose a weapon and tutorial of battle flow will commence._

Skyfire tapped his pede and frowned, not sure if he approved. He did not want to solve problems with violence.

"Must I?" he asked.

the text changed to:  _Yes. This is part of how the game works. Some enemies you can peacefully resolve conflict with. But some, like scraplets, petrorabbits, retrorats, draindeer and other non-sentients cannot be reasoned with._

"Now that is a fair point," Skyfire admitted, nodding his helm in agreement, before turning and examining the chests. His Scan did not give him any information, or possibly did not work in this stopped place.

He touched the closest one and it opened up, a sword floated up and hovered in front of his face, slowly turning in a circle. More text also appeared.

_A sword is a good weapon for beginners. It has no great strengths, but also no great weaknesses, while also dealing out a decent amount of damage._

_Are you wanting to use a sword?_ _**YES/NO** _

"I want to know what all my options are first," Skyfire said clicking no. A quick check through gave him the options of the aforementioned sword as well as dual knives, a hammer, an ax, a spear, a blaster, an energy bow, a staff, a whip, and finally his own fists.

Something about the spear niggled his processor. As if he had forgotten some minor detail that was important.

Ah well. He would remember it eventually. Skyfire shrugged and chose the spear.

_Spear auto equipped_ popped up and then some parts of the area started up again. His friends were full color and taking out weapons and a horde of retrorats shimmered into being. The rest of the world was still a stopped gray.

"Does this mean you can also see the game windows?" Skyfire hopefully asked both of them. After they did not respond, his spark slowed down with sadness. The text above their names had change to HoloTempest and HoloVoltage. He had not stumbled on a way to show his friends the game system.

This was incredibly disappointing.

Skyfire gave a deep exvent and then paid attention to the lesson. Stabbing with the spear was easy, learning to dodge was also easy. Apparently any teammates would act mostly automatically, but he could give orders. Those orders being obeyed depended on the orders, his Reputation with them, and their own personality. He could not, for instance, order Tempest to fire on Voltage or vice versa. He could order Tempest to go left, Voltage to go right, while he charged down the center.

The retrorats, especially when the game kept pausing everything to explain some detail, were very easy to beat. After they were defeated, the world went full color and time flowed properly. HoloTempest and Voltage went back to being proper Tempest and Voltage.

"It just now occurred to me that neither of you would have weapons," Skyfire said. Weapon mods where illegal to hatchlings after all.

"Huh? Oh no, we don't have mods," Voltage said looking around the room with interest, "Subspaced weapons are allowed. Modded into a frame is not."

Skyfire hadn't actually been aware of that. He hoped they were correct as he did not want to be arrested for breaking the law.

"What kinds of weapons do you have?" he asked instead, trying to focus. The room was a bare circle, the tunnel leading to the entrance was behind them, and three closed doors leading into the unknown across the way.

"I have a whip and Sis has a gun." Tempest answered practically skipping as he walked around the room examining the wall. There were interesting pictures and glyphs Skyfire didn't recognize on the wall. Probably just random 'look pretty' designs though.

Skyfire checked and said, "And I have a spear. Any preference on which door to enter?"

They both gave a negative and Skyfire wondered if they would ever have preferences on anything. Which was unfair of him but he still wondered.

"So not to get lost, let's do right to left. Meaning any choices we get we go right till we hit a dead end and then back track and go left." Skyfire decided as he went to the right side door.

As they went down the hall, LV1 Retrorats and LV2 Extra Large Rectrorats would keep attacking. They were very easy to deal with but got tedious quickly. On the plus side, each enemy gave a small amount EXP and shanix.

Skyfire eventually it to level nine from the retrorats, while his friends also gained multiple level each. They also found five chests of what appeared to be some sort of crafting material. Three chunks of copper, one coil of steel wool, and one thingamajig of green gel.

The gel was not edible. It did not obey laws of physics as it remained in a square shape despite being gooey enough to make Skyfire's hands feel gunked. It also did not leave traces on Skyfire's hands after he handled it. Which was also against the laws of physics.

He did *not* approve of such shenanigans.

However, this was the extent of the very first right hand door. The middle door, so far, had only been one long hall way with periodic attacks from retrorats and extra large retrorats.

After discovering and beating *magic wielding* retrorats, Skyfire had to sit down and glare at a wall. Magic was *unscientific* and he *did not like it*.

Also, magic hurt immensely. He assumed Tempest and Voltage just thought the Magi Retrorats could just breath fire, but Skyfire knew otherwise. He knew and he did not like it.

As he stood back up, silent rage tantrum done, Skyfire hoped he would find healing game type objects. His friends and himself were getting low on health.

By the time they got to an actual room, Skyfire had gotten to level eleven and Tempest was level twelve. Voltage was level ten and Skyfire assumed she was very close to another level. Honestly, his friends where gaining levels much quicker then he was.

The room was unusual. There was a pool of some sort of liquid, a save circle, and an overly detailed door. There was also another set of strange pictures on the walls. The pool had un-touchable question marks hovering over it.

Tempest went over and started admiring the pictures, while Voltage sighed and sat down to rest. Skyfire considered his options for a moment and went over to the circle to use the third save slot. He didn't know if the pool was deadly after all.

After backing a safety net, Skyfire walked to the pool and peered into it. It was shallow enough that he could easily reach down to to bottom. Unless it was something like how the Retrorats swirled into being, there would be nothing that would attack.

He then dipped the butt of his spear into the liquid. The end did not dissolve so *probably* not acidic. Skyfire shrugged and scooped up some in his hands and drank it down.

Text appeared in front of him saying ' _Health and Mana restored by healing spring!_ ' as his bites and scratches and wounds all healed. Which was a different but pleasant feeling.

The question marks also changed to ' _Healing Spring_ '.

Well. That was good to know.

"Tempest, Voltage, come drink some of this," Skyfire said as he stood back up, "You'll feel better."

He watched in fascination as their wounds shrank and vanished. Did this have to be considered magic? Some highly advanced scientific process he never learned would be a much better explanation.

He would need bottles and thorough testing to figure it out. *Awesome*.

Skyfire glanced around again. He did not notice anything else to do, "Shall we continue?" he asked going over to examine the door.

"Actually, I wanna look at the pictures first," Tempest said.

Huh. That was a first. A *very* good first!

"I'm fine with waiting," Skyfire said as he sat down to stare at the door. He could hear Tempest walking slowly around behind him.

The door had decorations as well. Skyfire wasn't quite sure what the angles and swirls were suppose to be other then pretty. As well, whatever design it was suppose to replicate was extremely stylized.

It was also surprisingly soothing to trace the lines with his optics.

"I'm done," Tempest said coming up to Skyfire's left.

Voltage went to Skyfire's right side and asked, "Shall we continue on?"

Skyfire stood up and stretched out his arms and back, "Right. Onwards to explore!"

He pushed the doors open and walked though, Tempest and Voltage following.

The next room had blank walls, a dais with a large ornate chest on it and a Retrorat bigger then Skyfire's entire frame. It had the text 'Leader Rectrorat LV:5' hovering above it. It was snarling and between them and the chest.

Skyfire twirled out his spear from his subspace as the Leader screeched and charged them. Time to fight.

***

The Leader was hard hitting but also, very slow. It was also mad with rage so it became very easy for Skyfire to keep its attention and just dodge to the side when it charged. Tempest and Voltage kept chipping at its health until at last it was defeated.

The Retrorat Leader staggered in death throes and rasped out, "No. My treasure!" before dissolving in glittering light, same as the other enemies.

Skyfire optic spiraled wide in shock. Since when were retrorats sentient? Did he just murder someone? What was *that*?

Neither Tempest or Voltage appeared at all distressed from just killing someone as Tempest whooped loudly and did a back flip and Voltage came over to clap Skyfire on the back in victory.

Skyfire forced his horror down and gave them both a smile. This was his problem and not theirs.

"Good job, both of you. Lets get out of here shall- what is that?"

Skyfire shuttled his optics as a bright beam of white light appeared behind the ornate treasure chest. Using his Scan skill just gave him question marks. Right then.

He walked up the dais and tapped open the chest with the butt of his spear. Same as the previous chests, it popped open and the prize floated up and Skyfire got text abut it.

A Retrorat tail? *That* was the prize for murder?

"I do not like this game," Skyfire muttered very quietly. Hopefully so softly that his friends wouldn't hear.

He tapped his pede as he frowned at the beam of mystery. Well, he wouldn't know until he tried it. He walked forward and into the light.

Skyfire heard two voices yell "BOSS!" as Tempest and Voltage dashed after him and then the world dissolved.

There was a sensation of rising up against gravity and he was now outside the dungeon. Tempest and Voltage appearing a moment after him.

"Ah, so that is what it does," Skyfire said putting his spear away. He jumped a little when Voltage punched his side. It didn't hurt but it was startling.

"Don't scare us like that, Boss!" Tempest wailed before glomping on, "Never ever!"

"Ah, I apologize," Skyfire said rubbing Tempest's helm and smiling ruefully at a hissing Voltage, "I'll try not to, okay?"

Voltage glared before calming down and giving him a nod. Skyfire relaxed at the sign of forgiveness. Losing his friends the day after he got them would be just terrible.

Skyfire made a mental note to work out why self testing the pool was okay but the beam was not. There had to be an internal emotional logic he couldn't see from where he was standing.

Tempest made a whining noise as he let Skyfire go. He paused and frowned obviously thinking of something before turning to Voltage and saying, "We need to head home. It is almost Secondary cycle."

Voltage winced and nodded before sliding her optics up at Skyfire's and curling her mouth up in a smirk, "We'll be back in the middle of Secondary, Boss. See you at the fountain?"

"Certainly," Skyfire replied smiling and nodding back, "I will be there."

He paused and glanced around before deciding to keep trusting them, "I'll bring extra energon if you like."

Skyfire got matching grins from his leaving friends.

"That'll be great!" Tempest called back before they both transformed and left through the West balcony.

Skyfire vented slowly. Even though he'd looked to make sure no one else was nearby, talking about his Never Starve skill was nerve wracking. But he'd gotten through it and now it was time to go home and ask Da for hugs and advice.

He went to the West balcony, transformed, and lifted off to home.


	4. Chapter 4

When Skyfire got home, he realized two important details. One: there were two blue quest marks, one in the foyer and one at the door to Da's room. Two: Da would not understand Skyfire being upset.

The first time around, he hadn't learned what being a Singer in the Dark really truly *meant*  until he was almost full grown. So it was double awkward because Skyfire couldn't really bring it up. He had also spent the rest of his life ignoring and avoiding the knowledge.

Magical mystical *things* where not stuff Skyfire wanted to think about at all. Also, the other half of the whole mess that Skyfire very firmly repressed. So hard. So very firmly hard repressed.

The short explanation and the bit Skyfire could handle was: Da gained  specifically tuned  enhanced sensors as Singer. Da could thus speak and touch ghosts. So while Da was intelligently aware that other people couldn't do so, emotionally speaking it was as if hmm. What was the metaphor Da used last time again?

Right! As if a mecha wailed at you about missing someone who was quite literally standing right next to them. And yelling 'notice me' at the max of their vocal  volume.

So Da would not be good at comfort or agree that murder was wrong. Skyfire vented  softly and wearily as he went to examine the blue Quest marks. Might as well get this over with.

The one in the foyer was:

_ Decacycle Repeatable Quest: CHA Practice. _

_ Talk with Vos for at least two cycles in one decacycle for a chance for CHA increase.  _

_ Reward: Variable increase of CHA stat.  _

_ ** Yes/No ** _

That sounded useful so he clicked yes and went to look at the one by Da's door.

_ Decacycle Repeatable Quest: MAG  _ _ Lessons _

_ Listen to Jet Convoy for at least two cycle in one decacycle for a chance for MAG increase.  _

_ Reward: Variable increase of MAG stat.  _

_ ** Yes/No ** _

Skyfire narrowed his optics at that. What a tricky sly game this was. Making talking with his Da being a requirement to  increase his annoying MAG stat. Well it wasn't as if he had to accept the Quest.

Except. He would like to talk with his Da more. Would clicking yes increase his chances to? Skyfire chewed on his lips and frowned.

Blarg, whatever. He was too distressed from his first murder to care. Skyfire tapped the yes button and then trudged to his room. He had stat points to spend and a moral  dilemma to wrestle with.

Quick Scan on his Mirror and to the level up screen and Skyfire now have 25 points to decide on.

He really, really disliked MAG being there, but making it even and tidy at ten was the easy choice.

The next question was: Would he be finding a different helm any time soon? Right now his CHA was only twelve because of the circlet Voltage made him. Without it, he was at two points. Better be safe then sorry, so eight points went there. He didn't really require any stat to be  desperately larger right now, so. Hmm. Raise everything else, even MAG, to twelve. Which still left three points.

On one hand, the possible sat growth chance required LUCK. On the other, Skyfire  preferred dealing with his problem intelligently and not by relying on fickle luck. Yet, wouldn't boosting his LUCK be the intelligent thing to do?

A  compromise. One more point each and then do a choice flip on the last stat point.

Skyfire got out of the menu screen and hunted down a choice flip. LUCK for heads, and INT for tails. He flicked it up and watched it fall.

Aaaand it was tails. INT it was.

He went back and finished. His stats were now:

_ STR: 12 _

_ DEX: 12 _

_ VIT: 12 _

_ MAG: 12 _

_ INT: 14 _

_ LUCK: 13 _

_ CHA: 12 (10) =22  _   


That done, he got out of the menu and went to settled at his window to get more fuel and focus on his problem.

Did he know and could at least vaguely trust anyone he could talk this out with? Da, Tempest, and Voltage were all out as they would get Skyfire was  upset but not comprehend *why*. Vos was... herself and would insist that anything invading her frame  deserved worst then death. Which was a reasonable and understandable reaction, but not one Skyfire shared. At least not with sentient invaders.

Nacelle was at negative in friendship so he was not a wise choice either. Everyone else Skyfire didn't know well enough to feel okay with asking advice and sympathy from them.

Oh wait. Didn't the local Primus Temple preach nonviolence? It had been so long he didn't really remember. Well, it was a place to try at least. He wasn't sure if he could get a  discrete advice or even any sympathy. But what other options did he *have*? None that he was aware of.

He hadn't sat in the breeze long enough to do more then feed himself and he was only half full at that. But no sense in wasting time. Skyfire turned his Never Starve back off and left home. Now to try and recall where the closest temple was.

***

The closest Temple was at the top of the tower Skyfire lived in. Air Traffic got much heavier and chaotic there, but Skyfire was small,  acceptable at flight, and secretly an adult. He made it through just fine.

The Temple was bright. A great many blaring lights, paint  chosen to reflect the lights, images of Primus and holy symbols eeeeeeeverywhere. Skyfire stood a little out of the way of the balcony and looked around, trying to get his bearings.

He hadn't been to the Temple for... huh. Never. Even before identifying as an  atheist , Da never took him to a Temple. For an  incredibly logical and good reason, but still, Skyfire now had no idea where anything was. He was also finding the design to be not intuitive, nor did he see any maps or  note boards.

Skyfire finally settled on looking at the text over people's helms until he found someone with the title of Priest. Which took a while, what with the crowd of  title less people, Seekers, Airdancers, and Artists. Oh, and at least one mecha had the title of Annoying Religious  Fanatic.

But he found one sleek civilian build jet with the title of 'Priest of Primus', and headed right to them.

Gleam LV 31, Priest of Primus stood in full view and directed incoming traffic. Skyfire squinted a little trying to figure out what pronoun should be used.

Humans also had an simpler pronoun system as they have only four or five max while Cybertronians had thirteen common  pronouns and hundreds of rare ones. Figuring out which one to use could get difficult. On the other hand, they had the pronoun available if a mecha needed it, unlike humans who sometimes had to settle for incorrect ones. Which struck Skyfire as being worse.

Gleam was reminding Skyfire of Voltage, Vos, and Slipstream so 'she' was going to be used unless or  until she said otherwise.

Skyfire worked his way though the crowd to stand next to Gleam and waited to be noticed.

Gleam paused in directing traffic, looked down at Skyfire, and raised her optic ridges in question.

"I got a moral dilemma I need advice with," Skyfire told her  solemnly.

Gleam managed to look  simultaneously amused and disbelieving, which was an interesting expression "Really."

"Yes," Skyfire said doing his best to ignore her  sarcasm. Getting help was more important then sniping  back.

Gleam settled on looking  condescendingly smug and pointed at a door, "Go over there and wait a bit. You will be aided."

"Thank you," Skyfire said politely as he went. Alright, so looking like a hatchling again had at least one drawback. Full growns were rude and  condescending.

The door led to a pretty and relaxing room. There was a couch covered in soft meshes to lay on, the view outside the window was very clear and wide, and all in all it just plain felt safe.

Skyfire frowned at it. He didn't trust it now. He preferred safe rooms that were logically safe, not some emotional  manipulation to force him to feel safe.

He vented softly and went over to sit on the berth anyway. He would remain wary while he looked for advice. So no mention of the game, no hint whatsoever of his sigma ability and most  definitely no mention of Da's Singer title.

It took a bit for someone else to come. He now wished he had brought his  data pads to study. Could have gotten closesr to finishing the INT stat gain Quest.

Actually here was a question: could he do the CHA stat gain Quest anywhere in Vos or just in his home's foyer? Yet another thing to add to the List of Stuff He Needed to Discover.

While Skyfire was pondering his ever growing List of Stuff, a new person entered the room. The test over their head read 'Corelight LV 67' and their title was 'Priest of Primus'.

Gleam had been a civilian build jet with the yellow-gold optics of the Priestly caste. She would be smaller then Skyfire once he finished growing. Corelight was a warrior build jet with  burnt gold optics and he was huge. Quite possibly as big as a shuttle.

Yet, Corelight was why Skyfire finally felt more relaxed. A warrior-Priest is only a danger to their enemies and Skyfire was no enemy of Cybertron. Granted, Corelight would have the same  opinion on murder like Vos or Tempest or Voltage did. But he was safe to be with.

Corelight looked down at Skyfire as he settled his large frame down, faceplate serious and concerned, "What troubles you hatchling."

Oh dear. He hadn't thought up what to say before hand. Bother, he was going to have to think fast here.

"Me and my friends Tempest and Voltage where exploring," Skyfire said slowly at first but quickly gaining speed, "When we found this chewed up hole in one of Vos's walls and went down it. There was a bunch of retrorats down there and we got rid of them. Or as many as we could find, at least. But the biggest one could talk and I am worried I just murdered someone."

Corelight went blanked faced with surprise. Well it was an unexpected story.

Corelight turned his helm up towards the  ceiling. Skyfire waited  politely for Corelight to finish messaging Vos.

"Keeping retrorats from eating Vos's frame is a good thing," Corelight finally said in a deep soothing rumble.

"And that I am not worried about," Skyfire agreed, "It is that I didn't know they could *talk*. With actually words! Does that not mean we could bargain and peacefully get them to stop instead of only fighting?"

Corelight frowned and shook his helm, "Metalvores can not be reasoned with. They only flee from superior force and death."

"Has anyone ever tried talking?" Skyfire asked, crossing his arms. His  assessment was correct. Corelight would be like the majority and consider peaceful  solutions to be a last resort.

Being a  pacifist in a warrior culture was very difficult.

"Talking is useless to creatures that consider us only food," Corelight stated firmly, "Let it trouble you no more, hatchling. Talking would only have gotten you killed."

Skyfire vented sharped and glared. How could anyone know that if they never tried? just stating a fact didn't make it true. You had to observe and test it first!

"Thank you for your advice," Skyfire said  politely , "I will think hard on your words."

Corelight rumbled out a laugh and said, "You're a stubborn one. Well you'll figure it out. You can come see me whenever you need to, hatchling."

"I'll keep that in my processor," Skyfire agreed before adding, "Also, my name is Skyfire."

"Heh! My name is Corelight."

"It was nice to meet you, Corelight-Priest. Fair flightpath to you."

"Fair flightpath to you as well, Skyfire," Corelight rumbled as Skyfire exited the room.

Skyfire drooped once the door closed. This was, so far, an utter bust. He took a deep invent and let it out slowly, focusing on the sensation of air helping cool his systems. He'll find his own way, then.

He  straighten up and went off to explore and think about everything. He hadn't really taken time since the whole mess started to do that. Perhaps the Gamer Mind skill kept him from having a breakdown. But did it get rid of his emotions or did it just bury them? Either way, it was unhealthy for that to happen. There were reasons why people had feelings and repression caused a whole host of problems in life.

The Temple was really quite well designed and stunning. Much focus on light as Primus as God of both order and life and light was the surest sign of life. Also, yellow metal  everywhere. So much yellow and gold colors. The small amount of blue and white accents were a gift to his optics. Broke up the monotony and let his  processor relax.

The horde of whispering and praying mecha was also nice to look at. Such a wide range of colors and frames.

Skyfire found a mostly unoccupied bench and glanced at the tiny minibot in  bemusement. How'd the minibot get up here?

But then he looked at the name and his optics got bright in wonder because this was new and strange.

The minibot was orange and had a wheel on his frame but Skyfire could not tell what the mini's altmode was. But more importantly the test about the mini's helm read: ' _ Rung LV: 99/????????LV:????' _  and the titles below read:  _ 'Psychologist /?????/???????'. _

What was *this*? What did it mean? Did the game make a psychologist appear because Skyfire was needing help? Did the game just pick up a minobot and warp him to the top of a tower in Vos? How was Rung even suppose to get *down*? Did this game have modulators and this was one of their play characters and that was why the question marks? Why was this his life now? Why did he keep getting more and more questions instead of answers?

Skyfire noticed Rung was looking slightly alarmed and  realized he was making strange expression and noises at the back of his intake. He coughed awkwardly and tried to smile.

Rung did not look relieved.

"So, uh, how did a minibot get up a tower?" Skyfire asked, feeling horrible inside. This was a terrible conversation starter.

However, it appeared to be the right thing to say as Rung's expression changed from alarmed to relived and then  pleasantly interested.

"I am small enough to fit in the internal repair tunnels and climb up," Rung replied patting the area next to him, "My name is Rung. What is yours hatchling?"

Skyfire sat down and said, "I am Skyfire. My Da is Air Guardian Jet Convoy. When you are done, would you like a ride down? I am sure I can carry you."

As Skyfire was already bigger then Rung, it was actually possible for him to carry Rung down. It would have to be Rung perched on top of his alt mode, and thus very tricky, but it could be done.

Rung smiled and patted Skyfire's hand, "Thank you for the offer but I can-what in the name of Primus!"

Rung's hand shot back and he looked around wildly shocked. Skyfire shuttled his optics in confusion and worry. What had happened there?

"What is wrong?" he asked.

Rung's optics were huge and his antenna was  quivering  as he leaned over and hissed, "There was text over your helm, Skyfire! But then it vanished!"

Skyfire had not seen that coming, "You could see them too," he said, highly surprised. How did that happen and how could he get Tempest, Voltage, and Da to also do so?

Rung's expression went blank at that and he slowly lifted his hand and placed it on Skyfire's arm. He glanced up at over Skyfire's helm and then gave the room and the many mecha in it a long  pan over.

"Well. This is new," Rung said blandly. He glanced over and up at Skyfire, "Is this why you were in the advice room?"

Skyfire started talking and the whole mess came flowing out of him again, "Nope. I was here because I-. Okay, so, my friends and I found a rectrorat nest in one of Vos's walls. And by nest I mean it was labeled as a dungeon. You're the first person who can also see the text I've met, by the way. Anyway, we go in, slay as many rectrorats as we can find. Only the biggest leader rectrorat was capable of talking and now I am upset because I am a  pacifist and I just murdered a sentient creature. Didn't even try to talk it out of Vos's frame or anything."

Rung hugged as much of Skyfire as he could reach which helped Skyfire calm down. He hadn't even realized he was getting upset! How  embarrassing.

And somewhat  terrifying. Skyfire gave a quick glance around but no one appeared to have noticed. He relaxed and wiggled around to hug Rung back.

"Thanks," he said, braking out of the hug, "I think I needed that a bunch."

"It was no trouble, Skyfire," Rung replied patting Skyfire's hand comforting.

They sat quietly for a moment, Skyfire feeling much more relaxed and  comfortable. But he had a great many objective to complete so he roused himself and asked, "Two questions. Do you have an advice to my  dilemma and why is your text so odd?"

Rung shuttled his optics in surprise and Skyfire hurried to explain, "You don't have to tell me if it is private, but it is very different then everyone else I've seen so I was wondering about it. It is why I made such a strange face when I saw you."

"Ah, well. First question; Other then simply admitting your error and not repeating it, and that you  honestly did not know they could talk I have no advice. For the second: I must admit, I do not know what my text says."

Skyfire nodded at the advice. That... was good advice. However, the only reflective surfaces where the windows and there were crowds there and the  reflections would be bad and blurry.

The decorations where bright but not  reflective and Skyfire did not know of any room with a mirror. Well, hopefully Rung knew.

Skyfire leaned down and said, "Know of where we can find a mirror? I've never been to a Primus Temple before and I don't know where anything is."

"Actually," Rung said reaching into a compartment in his frame, "I have a mirror with me."

Well that was amazingly useful.

"Right, so," Skyfire said keeping an hand on Rung, "Now you can check the text over your head."

Rung peered into the mirror, tilting it up to see the text. He murmured, "How odd. It isn't reversed at all. Not that I am complaining but it is unexpected."

Skyfire gazed into the distance. He hadn't noticed that was true.  Embarrassment make his wings scrunch up. Wasn't he suppose to be smarter then this?

He looked over Rung's helm into the mirror and yep, the text was not reversed. That was very- at crap he'd used scan on himself. The world was now  gray and the menu was opened.

"Why can't I move?" Rung screamed in panic, frame twitching against Skyfire's. Skyfire  shuttled his optics and tried to move his pedes. He hadn't realized he couldn't move when the menu was open either.

"I have no idea! I'm sorry!" Skyfire said squirming himself, "I did not mean to open the menu. didn't  realize I couldn't move my feet while it was open either. I am so so sorry about this."

Rung vented rapidly and then started calming down and venting slower. Eventually he calmed down and said, "I am alright. How long have you been dealing with this?"

"This is the third sol," Skyfire answered.

"You're remarkable calm about this," Rung said frowning up at him.

Skyfire shuttled his optics before he remembered. He clicked over to his skills and then clicked the Gamer Mind skill.

"This is why," he said pointing.

Rung read the text with a frown before turning a  concerned expression on Skyfire, "That can not be healthy in the long term."

"Why is that?" Skyfire asked, honestly curious. He'd mostly focused on xenobiologigy, energon production, and interstellar travel in his studies. Psychology was a complete mystery to him.

"Well there are reasons, good ones, why we feel fear and other emotions," Rung said, "Emotions in general keep us from falling into a logic-circle and fear itself can act as an both an early warning system and a survival  instinct . If you are incapable of feeling any fear whatsoever, what will stop you from walking towards a diver?"

Huh. He'd never thought of that before. Not the diver bit, as it was sheer suicidal stupidity to go towards a diver, but there were a great many crashes in midair from foolish  arrogant fliers who had no caution.

"I don't know how to make it stop," he  admitted. Rung hummed and stared at the widow before going 'ah' and swiping at it.

There were now two windows, one in front of Skyfire and one for Rung.

Skyfire watched a bit as Rung started tapping and reading through windows quickly. The angle kept Skyfire from reading it as well, but Rung's expression kept moving from worry to fascination and back.

He thought of something and went back to the main menu in his own window. Yep, Help had an arrow saying new.

The help guide had been updated with three explanations. One explaining that question marks in titles and names were spoilers Skyfire had to discover himself, one  explaining that Purple Quest marks were multi-playthrough plots, and one titled 'Rung is a Mystery!' and the text was entirely formed of question marks.

What helpful  guidance he'd been given.

"I believe you now have my never ending sympathy," Rung said shaking his head and sighing, "This will not be an easy life for you."

"I am very stubborn. I'll survive," Skyfire said, feeling a faint smile and remembered fondness at his explorations with Starscream before the war. He knew exactly what incident the 'Out Stubborn a Blackhole'  Achievement was  referring to and he was proud of it.

Rung just looked sad at that before he resumed reading. Skyfire decided he would check out Options again and also see if he gained any Skills since he last checked. Which was.... yestersol. Oh bother, he forgot to check after the dungeon, he'd been so upset and distracted with the whole murder thing and constant new data.

He had gained the skill Weapon Use: Spear, something called Meta-Game, Explorer, Rivalry, and Flight Racing. Meta-Game and Explorer were neat, Rivalry and Flight Racing where going to be very useful, and Weapon Use... was. Well it existed.

"Ah, Skyfire?" Rung asked, "I would like to test something, if I may?"

"Test what?" Skyfire replied.

Rung steepled his fingers together and said with thoughtful care, "Is it alright if we got back to where you slayed the talking rectrorat? I am under the impression that we're missing an important bit of info."

Skyfire bit his lower lip and thought about that. He really really did not want to, but. Well it came down to how much he trusted Rung didn't it?

It was silly and  nonsensical and unwise, but he did feel that Rung was trustworthy Besides, four optics could catch more details then two.

"Okay. Lets go. It is- wait, are you okay with riding my alt-mode as I fly down to it? It is in a different tower and it will take you a long time to climb down this one and up another one." Skyfire asked. It would be tricky to do, but he was certain he could do so. Rung was not very heavy.

Rung smiled a little and sighed before nodding, "I'm willing to try."

"I'm not going to be fighting anyone by the way," Skyfire added as he exited out of the Skills menu, "You'll have to do it or we just run away from everything."

"That is also  acceptable ," Rung agreed.

Skyfire grinned as he exited out of the Menu. Two new Quest marks, one red and one purple popped into view. Skyfire looked at them in fascination.

The red one was:  _ Quick Choice Quest: Ethical Debate _

_ Take Rung to to the Boss of the Beginner's Dungeon and see what happens. _

_ Reward: Randomized _

_ Accept: _ _ ** Yes/No ** _

The purple read: _M_ _ eta-Game Quest: Solve the Mystery of Rung. _

_ Figure out the many secrets Rung is keeping. _

_ Reward: ?????? _

_ Accept:  _ _ ** Yes/No ** _

Skyfire quickly clicked the yes button for red, but paused at the purple one. That... was rather invasive of him after all.

"Would you be alright with me clicking yes on the purple one?" he asked Rung, "I'm assuming it  refers to how you can also see the text boxes, but it might not."

A look of  startlement  crossed Rung's face before being replaced with a fond sort of something. Skyfire wasn't sure if that was pride of amusement.

"I am fine with it," Rung said.

Skyfire nodded  solemnly and tapped the Yes on the purple Quest before standing up and offering his arm, "Shall we be off then Doctor Rung?"

That that was  definitely an expression of fond amusement. Which made the previous one a look of pride. Neat.

"We shall, Mister Skyfire," Rung replied and looped his arm around Skyfire's. It was a good thing Skyfire was small enough right now for Rung to still do that. A vorn older and Rung would have only be able to hold on.

They made their way though the crowed Temple back to the balcony, where Skyfire edged them to the side out of the way of the  traffic crush. He looked down and out at the mob and frowned. This was going to be some tricky flying. After, all, Rung would have to ride on Skyfire's outside and thus Skyfire could not turn very far to the side. And no one nearby appeared to care if they slammed into anyone else.

The thought of what would happen to Rung if he fell was too  terrifying to think about so Skyfire just didn't.

The Gamer Mind was unhealthy in the long term, but it was  incredibly helpful right now.

"I'm going into my alt form, and you sit on me in the most stable way you can find," Skyfire told Rung. He waited for Rung's 'I understand' nod before doing so.

He waited some more as Rung crawled around his topside and squirmed for a while before settling down. Which ended up being Rung face down on his belly. Well, that was his choice.

"Ready?" he asked.

Yes," Rung  mumbled  into Skyfire's glass. Which was  ticklish and Skyfire decided not to make conversation during the flight. Distractions would be a bad idea.

Skyfire slowly and careful turned on his thrusters and lifted off the balcony.

It was a very good thing Skyfire could not feel fear, as doing this would normally be terrifying. He had to move both slow and steady, could not turn sideways at all, and was  surrounded by fixated and speeding fliers.

He succeeded in getting them out of the crowd, but still. It was not an enjoyable experience and he did *not* want to do that again.

Getting to the Dungeon entrance was easy in  comparison. There was another repeatable quest hovering in front of the chewed hole. He did not want to deal with that right now so Skyfire ignored it and went to enter the  dungeon.

However, a message popped up and stopped him.

_ Tutorial Notice: _

_ You can not complete your current Quest with your current team. Go to Menu and then Team Switch to change team members. _

"Okaaaaaay," Skyfire said quietly as Rung leaned against him to also read the notice. Skyfire flicked it off and asked Rung, "Can I borrow your mirror again?"

Rung handed his mirror over with out a qualm. Rung was taking this whole game thing a lot better then Skyfire expected. Considering he didn't have the Gamer Mind skill as an aid, after all.

Skyfire shook his helm and then focused on the mirror and quickly went to the Team Switch option. Last time he'd checked it, he'd only given a passing glance. Now Skyfire examined it carefully.

His 'Team' was currently set to himself, Tempest, and Voltage. The list had a headshot picture of each of them, their LV, their HP and MP bars, their altmodes and statue as Cybertronian hatchlings, and some empty spaces that Skyfire assumed would be filled with titles and possibly fractions in later years. His also had the words 'can not be  swapped out' on it. His picture was of him looking earnestly interested, Tempest's was him grinning in  excitement , and Voltage was giving a pleased smirk.

Skyfire's spark felt large and happy, looking at his friend's pictures. It was a nice feeling.

He took a deep vent and clicked on Tempest's  picture anyway. As much as he liked having friends, this was not the time for them.

Clicking changed the screen to a split screen. One side had his current team the other had a very long box with two names in it. Nacelle's name had the note 'can not be placed in same team as anyone else'. Rung's name has the text 'can only be used during the Ethical Debate quest'.

Switching Rung with Tempest was easy, but it took far to long to figure out how to get Voltage to the box. Clicking on Voltage and then clicking on an empty space was... alright it made internal sense but outside the game it did not.

That done, Skyfire exited out and handed the mirror back to Rung.

"We are good to go," he said gesturing at the  dungeon entrance , "Shall I enter first or do you wish to?"

Skyfire remembered something and added before Rung could reply, "Entering last time causes gravity to do this weird almost disable... thing and you don't fall down. You just float. Neither myself or my friends had to turn our thrusters on."

Rung gave him a bright smile and said, "I'll go first then," and stepped into the  entrance.

Skyfire followed close behind.

***

The descent into the  dungeon was still  pleasant and Rung  definitely enjoyed it. Once fully down in the first room, Rung got a staff with a knob on the end outs of his subspace. Rung then. It was rather. A weird thing happened.

Specs of light sparked into being and flowed around Rung while a bouncy  energetic song played from no where. The light solidified into flowing layers of hard light,  acting as clothing for Rung.

The hard light clothing was a very pretty many layered skirt, a  ribboned shirt, and what appeared to be some sort of boots. The music had also stopped which was much better.

Skyfire glowered down at Rung before decided he just could not bother with this latest annoyance. Rung didn't look surprised either, so. Whatever. He had other, more important, things to deal with.

"The talking retrorat was down this way," Skyfire said as he entered the middle door.

They skipped the chests this time around and Rung could  dissolve any restrorats with a swap of his hitting stick. This must be the power of level ninty-nine.

They got to the Healing Spring and the Save Point, which Skyfire showed Rung how to use. He was aware he was delaying because he did not want to see the site of his first murder. He was not  afraid as he could not feel that feeling anymore. But he did not want to, which was a different feeling then fear.

Possibly it could be called shame or  disgust.

Skyfire gave a full frame shiver and stiffened his backstrut. He stiffly walked over and pushed the door open.

There was a new closed treasure chest on the  dais and the exit beam of light was gone.

As they entered the room, the door clicked shut behind them and light swirled and formed into a replica of the talking Rectrorat Leader. Skyfire stared, utterly surprised. It looked exactly the same as the last one. Was he just that bad at telling the different between them?

Or well. This was a game, right? Even though to every  sense he had, the Rectrorat felt like an actual creature. But it was still an apparition of holographic sparkles and appeared to respawn. Did this mean it didn't really exist? Or something more disturbing. Did it remember the previous death?

It took only a single thump of Rung's hitting stick to kill off the Rectrorat who did the exact same stumbling and talking as last time.

Skyfire had to sit down at that.

"It still feels like murder," he said to Rung, feeling...oddly numb? The feelings were there but far away and shrouded in some fuzzy softness. Like Earth's  woolly sweater things.

Rung walked over and sat down beside him.

It was nice, sitting there and being quiet. Rung's  frustrating suddenly appearing musical skirts felt tingly where they touched Skyfire's frame.

His processor felt strained and about to snap.

"I know I said I am very stubborn, but I still want to start screaming now," Skyfire told Rung calmly, "Would you think less of me for doing so?"

Rung shook his helm and reached out to hold Skyfire's hand, "I would not. I would think of you as amazingly  resilient. "

Skyfire's engine made a coughing noise and he trembled. He wanted. Something. Something large and nameless.

He scrubbed his face with his hands and admitted in a harsh whisper, "If it was one or the other I think I would be able to deal, but both overpowers even the Gamer Mind help and I just. I am very upset."

"Both?" Rung asked gently.

Skyfire squirmed. He wanted to tell Rung about what happened before this game mystery mess started but. it sounded insane and unbelievable.

But he remember it happening. And.

Rung knew the game thing was happening. Perhaps he would believe Skyfire about the war?

"I am a great deal older then I appear," Skyfire said slowly, "Three sols ago I was not a hatchling but a full grown mecha. Trying to deal with a war between, well two fractions that have not formed yet called Decepticons and Autobots."

Rung's face went blank and he just stared. Skyfire groaned and rubbed his own face again.

"I'm explaining this badly," he  complained before trying again, "This strange form of time travel happened right before, or possibly because of, this game system... thing."

He waited but Rung remained blanked faced silent so he added, "I was shot through the spark and woke up in my younger self's body."

Another pause and Skyfire kept going on, "I think I'm still in shock about it. Dying only hurts for a bit, you see, I would have expected more pain."

Rung said, face still blank and voice flat with some emotion Skyfire didn't  recognize , "Your life is just plain terrible."

Skyfire's vents hitched as he laughed weakly. "Thanks," he said.

"Oh dear," Rung said face finally moving again with worry and  concern , "I just. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I know it sounds unbelievable and crazy," Skyfire said with a sigh.

Rung patted Skyfire's arm which was nice, "Thankfully you have proven that you are not hallucinating strange things."

Skyfire huffed at that. He was still upset and unhappy but he thought. He could handle another day.

It was enough that at least one other person knew and believed him about... everything.

"So, what to see what is in the chest?" Skyfire asked.

Rung pulled away, letting Skyfire's subject change stand, "Alright."

The chest contained another rat tail. Skyfire held it in his hand and they both looked at it for a while. Skyfire sighed and offered it to Rung before saying, "I got one last time, you get this one."

Rung made a really rather hilarious 'attempting to be polite' face as he accepted the tail. Skyfire tried to keep his own face  straight but failed and started laughing.

Rung tried to look disproving but he started laughing as well.

It took a while to calm down as Rung's laughter kept setting off Skyfire's and Skyfire's laughter would set off Rung's.

They still calmed down eventually and Skyfire noticed that he felt even better then before. Stress and annoyance feelings were lower and he was happy. Felt light enough to just hover in the air.

"So to exit we just enter the beam of light," Skyfire explained, waving a hand at it, "Is there anything else you want to look at?"

Rung shook his helm and said, "No, but I do wish to give you my com-address. Call me if you have any problems or need any support, all right?"

Skyfire accepted the number, feeling rather relieved and a bit grateful. It was just really good to know that he had someone he could talk to whom would both believe him and be supportive.

Leading Rung into the beam of light gave the same rising up through gravity sensation as before. They were transported right in front of the  entrance as before as well. This time, however, Skyfire took the time to examine the Blue Quest Mark he had ignored earlier.

_ Decacycle Repeatable Quest: STR and VIT building _

_ Beat a dungeon once a sol. _

_ Reward: Variable increase of STR and VIT stats.  _

_ ** Yes/No ** _

Skyfire pressed yes, but instead of the normal flash and vanish trick, it. Well. The message flashed, but the world turned gray and a circle came into being on the right side of Skyfire's range of vision.

On the left side, text appeared and read:  _ As you clicked yes late enough on the decacycle, you get to spin the wheel and see if your previous days will be pass or fail! _

A  tutorial notice then popped in front of the wheel and text which said:  _ This is a luck based minigame! The higher your luck, the bigger your best option will be. Spin the wheel and see where it lands. _ _ **   
** _

Skyfire huffed and waved away the notice before examining the wheel. There where four possible options: Max passed, passed, failed, max failed. Max passed had a very slim area. Passed was two spots that were a bit bigger then max pass. They were also separating failed and max failed.

Max failed had half the wheel. Failed was also two spots the same size as passed. Failed was wedged between passed and max passed.

Skyfire shrugged and reached out a hand to spin the wheel as hard as he could.

He wanted to know what the difference between max and normal was. Hopefully the Help answers had been updated to explain.

But for now, the wheel pointer had stopped on one of the 'passed' spots. There was a  celebratory snippet of noise and glittered poofed into being and fell on his helm before vanishing, along with the wheel.

Color came back into the world and Skyfire sighed deeply before turning to Rung with a smile.

"It just occurred to me, that while this frame is too young for a comline, I could give you my home one. So ah. here."

Skyfire rattled off the number and smiled even bigger as Rung nodded. He added, "So, thank you for all your help but I do believe it is almost time to met up with my friends, so I'll be leaving now. Unless you want something still?"

Rung shook his helm and said, "No I am fine," he then reached over and patted Skyfire's arm before adding, "Take care on your, ah. Adventure, alright?"

Skyfire nodded feeling his spark warm at the concearn. This time was much better then the war.

"I will," he promised.

Then it was time for good byes and they head off on their own  seperate whatevers. Skyfire hadn't the slightest idea what Rung was going to do, other then climb down a  service hatch or possibly buy a ride on one of the public transports. But after that was his own business and none of Skyfire's.

For himself, he checked his inner time  keeping and smiled. Close enough to meet up with Tempest and Voltage.

He started heading towards the fountain before smacking in helm in  remembrance. He'd  completely forgotten to get extra cubes for Tempest and Voltage as he'd offered.

Hopefully they'll like what the food stalls offered as he didn't have time or a safe place to make any.

 


End file.
